


Tension

by AdventTraitor



Category: Persona 5
Genre: M/M, akeshu - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-10 23:29:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11702112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdventTraitor/pseuds/AdventTraitor
Summary: Akechi just wanted to get out of the house to quell his boredom when a familiar face hijacks his pleasant evening.





	Tension

**Author's Note:**

> P5 has managed to pull me out of the fandom I've been in for years. YEARS. Enjoy!!

It was _hot_.

Not just summer hot, more like walking into an oven and having a hair dryer blowing full blast in your face hot. Eggs could cook on the sidewalk hot. _Akira_ hot.

Akechi’s mouth pulled up at the side with that last thought.

He’d barely walked outside and already sweat trickled down his neck, his back damp beneath his tank top. It wouldn’t be long until his hair began to droop, even tucked under a snapback as it was. Honestly, going out had sounded fun moments before he stepped outside, but now…well, maybe boredom was worth not melting.

He hadn’t had an evening off in weeks—between school and working with the prosecutor’s office, one couldn’t imagine having much time off. As it was, school was on break and Sae-san had given him the night off. “Get some rest,” she’d said.

But Akechi doesn’t _rest_.

Resting made him bored which made him restless which made him contemplate his boredom which made him act. No matter what he tried, his mind simply didn’t turn off like others’ seemed to—not with such high profile crimes occurring, not with entrance exams approaching. It was a wonder he got any sleep at night, though granted, that was in small amounts as well.

He strode up to the car he drove on loan, opening the door and contemplating where to go to sate his constantly shifting thoughts, when he was pulled out of his own head by a voice calling out to him.

“Hey, can I get a ride?”

Akechi blinked, shocked for a moment as he saw none other than Akira himself striding up the street like he owned it, looking ridiculously at ease considering the heat glaring down upon them both.

“Ah, Kurusu-kun,” he started, smiling before he realized it was happening. “That depends. Where is your destination?”

“Wherever you’re going.”

Akechi let out a choked laugh, his fingers tightening on the door handle.

“…You’re a ways away from Yongen-Jaya, hm? Do you need a ride home?”

“If that’s where you want to go.”

Akechi’s smile froze. Did he just…? No. No, that was Akechi reading too far into things. Best to ignore it.

“You’re something of an enigma, Kurusu-kun. I’m not sure what you want from me,” he lilted.

“Akira.”

“Eh…pardon?”

“My name is Akira.”

Akechi let out a bark of a laugh, accidentally touching the hot trim on his car and pulling his hand back quickly, pushing the pain down to keep from looking like an idiot. 

“That’s rather forward, isn’t it? You should at least take me out to dinner before we progress that far in our relationship,” he joked, or maybe not-really-joked.

“Alright.” 

Akira walked forward, hands in his pockets until he reached the passenger side door and got in the car, looking up at Akechi expectantly as he still stood outside.

“You…what?” Akechi pulled the driver’s door open, expression bewildered as he tried to make sense of this.

“It’s very hot.” Akira’s serene face betrayed nothing, but surely this was a joke…a plan to make a fool of him, somehow…it surely couldn’t mean what he thought it meant, what he’d like it to mean.

“Y-yeah…um. Okay.” Akechi got in his car, turning it on so that the air conditioning flowed as he tucked his hair behind an ear nervously, staring at the steering wheel as Akira stared at him, his gaze burning into the side of his face.

“Uh…where should we…” he started, his voice failing him.

“…What about that restaurant over by the TV station?” Akira asked nonchalantly, looking forward. “You seemed excited about it when we first met, right?”

Akechi’s pulse pounded. Akira really remembered all that time ago…?

“Uh, yeah, I really like it…if that’s okay with you, then?”

Akira nodded, looking back to him with a calm expression. “Let’s do it.”

Akechi did not blush, it was just ridiculously warm in the car. And his fingers only shook because it was so hot and the steering wheel burned him. No other explanation.

Shortly after Akechi began to drive them, Akira’s phone began pinging. _Ping ping ping_ , for several minutes straight.

“Well, somebody’s popular,” Akechi smiled pleasantly.

“Friends from school,” Akira answered.

“Oh? Like Takamaki-san and Sakamoto-kun? Are they fighting for your attention?”

“No worries. I told them it’s yours right now.”

Oh but he really did need to _stop_ with those one-liners.

“Aha, well…I wouldn’t want to be a point of contention between you and your friends, Kurusu-kun. I can take you to Shibuya instead—“

He glanced over to Akira, and cut himself off at the peculiar look on his face.

“You don’t consider us friends?” he asked softly.

“Uh, that—that’s not the implication—I don’t mean that at all,” Akechi stammered. Damn, when was the last time he tripped over his own words, unsure and skittish? The feeling frustrated him. “I just mean, I know you and your classmates don’t…exactly see eye-to-eye with me on some social issues,” he answered after a moment. “Sakamoto-kun in particular does not seem to tolerate my presence easily, and I don’t wish to be a burden…”

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t want to be,” Akira answered easily. “Ryuji knows better than to try and deliver an ultimatum. He’ll deal.”

“I see…”

Akira turned in his seat as the car came to a stop at a red light. “You don’t believe me?”

“It’s not that,” Akechi murmured. “More…I’m still confused as to why you want to hang out all of a sudden, that’s all.” Yes, a change of subject from that awkward word vomit from a moment ago.

Akira huffed, chuckling. “I don’t really see a problem with… _hanging out_. We are friends after all, right?”

“True…”

“Stop over thinking it. I just want some pancakes in my mouth.”

That _wording_ though. Akechi’s eyes narrowed. He saw Akira recline next to him from the corner of his eyes, arms reaching up to stretch before resting behind his head.

Akira’s phone pinged a few more times, but he ignored it as they reached their destination, entering the building and getting their food.

“What if I hadn’t been there?”

“Huh?” Akira looked up from his plate after taking a bite.

“If I hadn’t been home, what would you have done?”

Akira swallowed, using a finger to situate his glasses on his nose better.

“I wouldn’t have been there in the first place.”

Akechi raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Makoto told me her sister gave you the evening off.”

“So you just…decided to come over.”

“Yep.”

Akechi snorted a laugh, eyes closing at the thought.

“We have a long way to go, you and I…but I think we’re going to go through a lot before the end of this.”

“End of…” The way Akira said that, just then…it sounded oddly prophetic. His gray eyes stared directly into Akechi’s, full of depth and an expression that lead him to believe that Akira knew much more than he was letting on about…something. Everything. Or maybe it was nothing, and Akechi was simply overreacting once again.

“Don’t worry about it,” Akira answered after a moment, looking back down to his food and beginning to cut into the next portion on his plate. “Bottom line: we’re friends, and unless you want that to change, we’ll always be friends before anything else, no matter what anyone says.”

“Kusuru-kun—“

“Akira.”

“Ah…I couldn’t…”

“A-ki-ra. You promised. I’m paying for your dinner and everything.”

“Wh—what? When did I…” Akira raised an eyebrow, and Akechi sighed in defeat. “Fine then…Akira. Don’t blame me when people give us funny looks.”

“Doesn’t bother me anyway,” he answered, a satisfied smile on his perfect mouth as he sat back in his chair.

Akechi only sighed, dropping his chin in his hand and looking away, trying to hide the heat on his face as he smiled.


End file.
